The Harvard pitching staff entered the weekend with the Ivy League’s second-worst ERA.

But chances are it’ll be moving up in the rankings.

Led by strong performances from all four of its starting pitchers—seniors Trey Hendricks, Mike Morgalis and Jason Brown and sophomore Frank Herrmann—the collective staff ERA fell from 7.39 to 6.63. In 32 innings of work this weekend, they surrendered only seven earned runs, good for a 1.97 ERA.

“We came into the weekend at the bottom of the league in pitching,” said Crimson coach Joe Walsh. “But we played some good teams early and those number…well, we’re a lot better than that and it showed I think in how we did this weekend.”

The Harvard staff has now allowed two or fewer earned runs in six of its eight Ivy League games.

MUSICAL INFIELD

With sophomore third baseman Josh Klimkiewicz sidelined with an injured hamstring, Walsh moved Hendricks—last year’s all-Ivy first baseman—to third base for this weekend’s games. In his stead, junior Marc Hordon—who split time at first with Hendricks and Josh San Salvador ’02 during his last season two years ago—played first base.

In the middle of the infield, there were even more shakeups. Freshman Brendan Byrne started three of the weekend’s four games at second base, while sophomore Zak Farkes started at shortstop. Twice, however, Byrne—who batted ninth—was pinch hit for in his first at-bat, then replaced by sophomore Morgan Brown.

Brown entered both games at shortstop, pushing Farkes back to second base, his usual position.

When Hendricks took the mound for Game 2 against Penn on Saturday, Farkes again showcased his versatility, starting at third base, the third infield position he started at on the weekend.

“Zak’s been great back there,” Herrmann said.

WINDY CITY

Senior centerfielder Bryan Hale showed once again why he’s so valuable to the Crimson.

Long valued for his range in the vast outfield of O’Donnell Field, the co-captain made 13 putouts in the doubleheader with Penn on Saturday—a day when swirling winds made more than one outfielder look silly—and 21 on the weekend.

“Today’s one of those days,” Walsh said, “that if you don’t have a centerfielder who can fly, you’re in trouble.”